Warning: although this is written like a children's book, don't let your kids read it. It also contains themes of child abuse [and] neglect that may be upsetting. 

AUTHOR'S NOTES: 

I wanted to format this like a children's picture book, but unfortunately I don't have an illustrator, and even if I did, I wouldn't know how to implant images in the book. 

  Michelle didn't understand what was wrong with her. She was just like all the other little boys and girls. True, she was jumpy and distrustful, and didn't have many friends, and she also cried much more than the others, but surely that couldn't be it? 

She'd tried to ask Mommy and Daddy, but Daddy had ignored her until she'd accidentally knocked over his coffee, then he'd yelled at her, and chased her out of the room. 

Mommy wasn't very helpful either. She told her to go away when she tried to ask her, and smacked her when she tried to persist. 

There were many things Michelle didn't understand about love. Mummy and Daddy said they loved her, but it was always with the same look in their eyes when they looked at her. Was that how everyone was supposed to act when they were looking at someone they loved? Michelle didn't know. 

None of the other parents she had seen hit their kids, or called them names, or ignored them, but maybe it was just taboo to do it in public, and that's why Mummy and Daddy never did it around other people? 

Michelle didn't like it when Mummy and Daddy were in public. She'd never be able to tell what they were going to do next, like at home, so she much preferred it when they stayed at a distance. Then she could relax. 

Sometimes, Michelle thought she hated her parents, or even that they hated her, but she had always regretted thinking the first when she had calmed down, and the second was just ridiculous. Why would they have had her if they didn't want her? Surely they wouldn't have kept her around if they didn't? 

...Right?